While I am no physicist, I am also elated that Obama has chosen his team not on the basis of ideology or as payback for their efforts in his election but on what can they do for our country. George W Bush chose his team based not on talent but on an agenda that he wanted to push, and look, where did we end up?

Physicists in particular are elated; at last a genuine scientist will head the agency that funds the majority of physics research in the US. The position had usually been filled by political insiders. Chu shared the 1997 Nobel Prize with Bill Phillips for laser-cooling of atoms, and is currently the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Under Chu the lab is a center of research into biofuels and solar energy. He is a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council. Alas, there will be pressure worldwide to abandon carbon reduction to ameliorate the economic downturn.